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In December 2020, Canada released its national strengthened climate change plan with focus on cutting energy waste, cutting pollution, and build clean industrial advantage. Two weeks later, the national hydrogen strategy was announced urging all involved stakeholders to delve into the deployment of large-scale clean energy technologies. Ontario, Canada's largest economy and leading manufacturing province, it releases its provincial hydrogen strategy and roadmap later this year. represents a viable solution for reducing CO2 emissions from large industry pollutants by integrating our innovative copper chlorine (Cu-Cl) thermochemical water splitting cycle with the energy intensive and polluting industry of cement manufacturing. The paper highlights the nexus between the production process of two valuable commodities, namely cement and Hydrogen, and the role their integration introduces for increased energy efficiency and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, as most of the thermal energy demand in cement manufacturing is utilized during the kiln processes, the paper proposes several energy mix scenarios involving the use of hydrogen to partially meet the kiln's heat demand. The results from these scenarios show the possibility of achieving over 15% to 19.6% reduction in CO2 emissions compared to coal-based kiln production, along with reduced recurring cost for operating the kiln. On-site large-scale hydrogen production, mixed with natural gas, was found to be financially viable and environmentally advantageous alternative to power the kilns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are taking a leadership role in addressing global climate change and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but policy innovations are needed to help cities move from goals to outcomes. Pilot projects are one means by which cities are experimenting with new ways of governing and financing climate change mitigation. In this paper, we develop a framework for understanding the role of pilot projects in urban policy innovation: their emergence and rationale, and the means by which they ultimately scale up and out to reduce GHG emissions. We use this framework to evaluate a pilot project for retrofitting social housing buildings in Toronto. We find the initial pilot project helped address the challenges of pursuing deep retrofits of social housing. Scaling these lessons up to the city level required overcoming challenges to financing and coordinating a larger project; scaling out to the provincial level revealed institutional and political obstacles to pursuing the co‐benefits of deep building retrofits in social housing. Bridging agents play an important role in both scaling processes. The analysis reveals the additive nature of urban policy innovation and the dynamic interplay of change agents and institutional and political context in innovation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy-makers are investigating ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of the transportation sector. Many government agencies have studied the effects of pavement type and characteristics on fuel consumption. Such models, valid for a particular set of simulation conditions, suggest that rigid pavements perform better than flexible pavements. However, it is unclear how this type of model can be applied at the scale of a realistic road network. This paper proposes a statistical approach to assess the relative importance of pavement type and characteristics on fuel consumption of heavy vehicle traffic by considering the specificities of meteorological conditions, heavy vehicles, and driver behaviours. A case study in Canada showed that the potential advantage of using rigid pavements was offset by cold climate effects and the consideration of a realistic statistical payload distribution. Road roughness accounted on average for 1.1% of total fuel consumption, with an increased value of 1.9% in January. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions measurements obtained during several recent studies conducted by Environment Canada, Emissions Research and Measurement Division (ERMD). A variety of heavy-duty vehicles and engines operating on a range of different fuels including diesel, biodiesel, compressed natural gas (CNG), hythane (20% hydrogen, 80% CNG), and liquefied natural gas (LNG), and with different advanced aftertreatment technologies were studied by chassis dynamometer testing, engine dynamometer testing or on-road testing. Distance-based emission rates of CO2, CH4, and N2O are reported. Fuel consumption calculated by carbon balance from measured emissions is also reported. The measurement results show, for heavy-duty diesel vehicles without aftertreatment, that while CO2 emissions dominate, CH4 emissions account for between 0% and 0.11% and N2O emissions account for between 0.16% and 0.27% of the CO2-equivalent GHG emissions. Both of the aftertreatment technologies (diesel oxidation catalyst and active regeneration diesel particle filter) studied increased N2O emissions compared to engine out emissions while CH4 emissions remain essentially unchanged. No effect on tailpipe GHG emissions was found with the use of up to 20% biodiesel when the engine was equipped with an oxidation catalyst. Biodiesel use did show some reductions in tailpipe GHG emissions as compared to ULSD without aftertreatment and with the use of a diesel particle filter. Natural gas and hythane also offer decreased GHG emissions (10–20%) at the tailpipe when compared with diesel. Emission factors (gL−1 fuel) for CH4 and N2O are suggested for heavy-duty vehicles fueled with diesel-based fuels and natural gas. These emission factors are substantially lower than those recommended for use by IPCC methodologies for developing national inventories. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]